Can't Get Enough of That Pound of Flesh

BY RUSS WELLEN02.28.2006 06:00 | DISPATCHES

As stated in a previous Dispatch, in spite of poll results to the contrary, this correspondent remains unconvinced that the majority of Americans object to torture. Neither, he suspects, are they receptive to findings it's an ineffective approach to eliciting the truth.

Like with capital punishment, it's all about the pound of flesh.

But torture is still an issue ripe for plucking by the opposition. Its challenge is to make the public understand that the harsh policies of the Rumsfeld-Cheney manster*:

Expose military and intelligence personnel who implement these policies, if captured, to retaliatory treatment even more barbaric than they could previously expect.

Exposes the same personnel to prosecution by its own agencies.

Exposes the nation to ridicule and contempt.

Thus (to spell it out again) weakening the military, the presidency, and the nation.

How's that for handing the Democrats a key strategy on a silver platter?

*The "two-headed killer creature" from the old horror movie of the same name.